Photo of powdered methamphetamine from methabuse.net
Local law enforcement, social workers,
counselors talk about county’s drug problem
BY BEN MUNRO
When asked about “meth” in Madison County, Captain Mike Benner of the sheriff’s office remembered an incident where a car exploded in a Madison County mobile home park two years ago.
Meth users were using the vehicle as a make-shift methamphetamine lab just before it went up in flames.
Cars aren’t blowing up everyday, but meth-related problems are a sign of the times in Madison County.
While drug users in Athens are trying to score cocaine, in Madison County – other than marijuana — the drug of choice is the potent and highly-addictive meth, sometimes called “poor man’s cocaine.”
Most of the calls county deputies respond to are related to some form of drug, and more often than not, meth is involved.
“We have, I think, more of our share in Madison County of meth than they do in other places,” Benner said.
Abuse of meth — the central nervous system stimulant of the amphetamine family, also called by such names as speed, crank, crystal-meth and glass — triggers the gamut of adverse reactions by users, including paranoia, depression, anxiety, chronic sleeping problems, increased blood pressure and seizures.
The Madison County’s Sheriff’s Office started seeing rises in meth in the county about three to four years ago and Benner said most of the activity in the county is among users making the substance in the backs of cars.
But it’s not just the county sheriff’s department dealing with the rise in county meth users.
When Madison County DFCS workers were asked about drug counseling several weeks ago by The Journal, the conversation centered heavily on meth.
That’s probably because around 70 percent of the drug-related neglect cases that come through Madison County DFCS’s door pertain to meth. In fact, department director Lisa Plank said this has been a persistent problem in cases for the last two or three years. For a department whose sole purpose is to strengthen families in the county, this drug has been one of the biggest hurdles.
“Neglect and meth are just hand-in-hand,” Madison County DFCS’s Phyllis Marstellar said. “The cycle that you’ll see is that they won’t be able to hold a job. When they don’t have a job, they’re not able to feed their kids. They don’t really care about anything but that drug.”
The meth problem in Madison County has grown so prevalent that the grand jury in October recommended that a civil action group be established to educate county citizens about the growing drug problem in the county, noting methamphetamine specifically and an increase in crime.
According to county law enforcement, the increase in crime has been a rise in small theft, particularly copper, wire and other metals.
Meth addicts in the county will often lift these materials, exchange them for scrap price for money and go get high again.
“If it’s a metal theft, it’s related somehow to support their habit,” Benner said.
Madison County-based counselor Jon Ainbinder, who spoke to the Journal several weeks ago, is often referred cases by the magistrate court and Madison County DFCS. Not surprisingly, more and more meth users are coming through his door.
Ainbinder, who runs Life Counseling in Danielsville, said users tell him the high associated with meth “is immediate and its like nothing you’ve ever felt before.”
“You might smoke a joint every now and then … you might be a casual beer drinker or whatever,” he said. “But there’s not a lot of casual meth users. If you’re doing meth, you’re doing it on a pretty regular basis.”
And lives are left in ruin.
Madison County DFCS case workers say they see homes in the county where children go unbathed, unfed and aren’t sent to school. The living conditions for the meth user and children are typically filthy.
What’s worse is that the problems don’t only stem from when a user is high on meth. When meth addicts crash, they crash for days and that’s where Madison County DFCS sees much of the neglect so prevalent with abuse of the drug.
“You’ll have an 18-month old that hasn’t eaten, hasn’t had a diaper change, hasn’t gone to bed and has been up with the mother or laying around with the mother with no attention at all,” Madison County DFCS’s Tracey Roberts said.
Meanwhile, Madison County continues to see more meth cases because the drug is so readily available. Internet recipes make it easy to produce and its economical price make it the ideal drug for someone looking to score a cheap, extended high.
In fact, Roberts said she heard a statistic once from someone within the FBI that a $50 bag of methamphetamine can keep two meth addicts high for several days.
“Because the thing about it is, the rush is 30 minutes, the high is eight hours,” she said. “As opposed to cocaine, the rush is five minutes and the high is half an hour.”
Benner said when they arrest someone on meth, the user is usually wired. “They’re more agitated. They’ve been up for probably several hours.”
At a certain point, Ainbinder said some users realize they’re going to end up dead or in jail and acknowledge the need for help. But relapse is very common and only those with a strong network of supporters can beat this addiction.
He said this is the worst problem he’s ever seen.
“It’s a terrible problem,” Ainbinder said. “I wish I could wave a magic wand or (say) ‘here’s a vitamin pill. Take this and you won’t need meth anymore.”
